Spas and wellness

From a massage beneath the rainforest canopy and yoga on the beach, to an inclusive wellness holiday, the Caribbean is the ultimate place to chill and zone out. No wonder it’s a magnet for busy celebrities. Johnny Depp and Penelope Cruz have been spotted at the butler-service las casitas village, Puerto Rico, with its exclusive Waldorf Astoria Spa.

Spas can be found in hotels all over the Caribbean. Treatments are generally a holiday add-on although the all-inclusive BodyHoliday in Saint Lucia is much more than that. As well as offering a complimentary treatment every day in the Caribbean’s biggest spa, it offers an array of fitness and sporting activities. It also encourages single travellers with no single room supplement.

Sandals Red Lane Spa at the Whitehouse European Village, Jamaica, offers a wellness retreat which includes body treatments, aromatherapy sessions and a Raindrop Dream Massage to restore energy balance.

Beaches Resorts’ Red Lane Spas in the Turks & Caicos, Negril and Ocho Rios, Jamaica, cater for beauty-conscious teens and tweens with their new Ginger Lily range of natural products and 12 new colours of nail lacquer.

Princess manicures and hair braiding beauty treatments are on offer at the Marriott Resort Spa, Frigate Bay in St. Kitts.

Guests wanting to tone their bodies and balance their minds will find yoga and meditation at hotels all over the Caribbean. Free yoga and tai chi classes are held every morning in the open-air Ajoupa at Karriwak Village, Tobago. Plus there are mind and body workshops and alternative therapies such as Thai yoga massage to provide yet more good vibes.Complimentary yoga sessions, meditation and other holistic activities are offered at theTrue Blue Bay Boutique Resort in Grenada.

The Zen-like spa at Thomson’s first Caribbean Sensatori Resort, Jamaica, offers a cool retreat from the heat of Negril’s Seven Mile Beach.

Indian-inspired Ayurveda is offered at Sandy Lane, Barbados, and the COMO Shambhala Retreat at Parrot Cay in the Turks & Caicos, where an outdoor Jacuzzi garden and Japanese baths overlooking the North Caicos Channel are the perfect place to relax. In The Bahamas, the Sivananda Ashram Yoga Retreat, Paradise Island, offers courses for people who want to learn more Ayurveda body treatments.

Exotic Treatments

From zesty rubs to herby wraps, spas offer all sorts of wonderful treatments using the exotic fruits and fragrant herbs of the Caribbean. Choose from a lime juice exfoliation and wrap of rum, aloe vera and island spice oil at the Grand Lucayan Bahamas; a papaya, pineapple or pink rose facial at the Calabash Hotel, Grenada, or a refreshing passion fruit Parcha Massage at the Ritz-Carlton San Juan, Puerto Rico.

Nutmeg, coconut, ocean seaweed and Aloe Vera are just some of the local spices and herbs available at Janissa’s spa at the Spice Island Beach Resort Grenada. These local ingredients reputedly have restorative powers and treatment options include wraps, body polishes, facials and massage.

Guests are invited to pick their own herbs for use in facials and body treatments from the new Spa herb garden at the Four Seasons Resort, Nevis. The Spa’s herb garden include Nevisian home-grown herbs such as lemongrass, ginger, basil, moringa, neem, sage, and aloe rosemary.

The mineral-rich cocoa bean is at the heart of rejuvenating treatments, lotions and potions at the Boucan by Hotel Chocolat’s Cocoa Juvenate Spa, which is situated amidst tranquil cocoa groves in Saint Lucia.

The Spa at Windjammer Landing, Saint Lucia has recently unveiled its new luxury wellness centre where guest can experience a wide selection of luxurious beauty and wellbeing treatments including travellers’ reprieve massages, seaweed body wraps and correcting facials, using locally-sourced ingredients.

For the ultimate detox, the Calabash’s Healthy Living package in Grenada includes a specially-designed menu, yoga, tennis lesson, reflexology and massages at its Heaven & Earth Spa.

Over at the luxurious Palm Island Beach Resort in the Grenadines, visitors are invited to undergo a very different detox. Mobile phones, laptops and other digital gadgets are actively discouraged so that holidaymakers can completely switch off and enjoy the beautiful island and spa.

An ideal setting

Something Unusual

In Saint Lucia, new DNA testing at The BodyHoliday takes all of the guesswork out of getting healthy and fit. The BodyHoliday guests who have their DNA analysed will receive a specially devised health and nutrition plan for their body type. They will also identify food types that are good and bad for the body to help combat existing ailments and avoid any health problems in the future.

Soak your cares away in the volcanically heated, mineral-enhanced Sulphur Springs at Sugar Beach, Saint Lucia. Detoxify the skin with a sulphur mud bath and cleanse the impurities away with a cleansing shower under the waterfalls of the majestic Pitons. Finish off with a bamboo massage using three types of bamboo, lotus flower and water lily.